Hungarian news in English, your guide to the politics of Hungary.

Eurobarometer: Majority of Hungarians optimistic about state of EU

The majority of Hungarians tend to have an overall positive view of the European Union, according to a fresh Eurobarometer survey.

Fully 55 percent of Hungarians tend to trust the bloc as against 44 percent who lent in the opposite direction, according to the Standard Eurobarometer 91 report’s section on Hungary, which ranks 9th out of 28 member states in this respect. Since the last Eurobarometer survey, the share of Hungarians who trust the EU has risen by 7 percentage points.

On average in the bloc, 44 percent said they trusted the EU, up 2 percentage points since the last survey.

Altogether 52 percent of Hungarians said they had a positive view of the EU, 9 percentage points more than in the previous survey.

Fully 68 percent of Hungarians expressed optimism and 28 pessimism concerning the future of the bloc.

Asked what they saw as the most important challenges facing the bloc, 49 percent of Hungarians claimed immigration as the top issue, followed by 23 percent who identified terrorism, while 22 percent insisted it was climate change.

The personal interviews of over 27,000 people from the 28 EU member states were conducted in June.